SAP AO 1.4 Vs 2.1, are there any drawbacks?

Hello,

We have  Analysis for excel 1.4.11 across all the users. We would like to upgrade it to version 2.1 SP 2

1.How is the scheduling affected? Can 2.1 workbooks be scheduled using the existing Precal server ?

2. Is 2.1 backward compatible with office 2010 and 2007?

3. Any known issues with 2.1 for example EPM Add- in crashing,etc?

Thanks in advance.